


You know, they say if it’s love, you will know it at once

by pinkmanesque



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Minor Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Minor Robb Stark/Margaery Tyrell, Mutual Pining, Romance, Sort of fake dating, fwb who fall in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 18:11:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18997861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmanesque/pseuds/pinkmanesque
Summary: Girl has a crush on her older brother’s best friend. What a cliche!But as the night goes on she’s drawn like a magnet to Theon’s touch. His hand on her waist, his fleeting kisses on her cheek, the warmth of his body. She can’t possibly be blamed for her actions when she finds a storm developing on his sea like eyes that matches the earthquake making her heart tremble.





	You know, they say if it’s love, you will know it at once

**Author's Note:**

> ...of course i'd be the type of person to go all in on a ship the same night of them dies smfh!
> 
> haven't written fic in ages but this is a way to cope!! un-beta'd, not my first language, etc... hope you enjoy it!

Theon and Sansa weren’t friends.

Well, they weren’t NOT friends but the beginning and end of their interactions involved Robb somehow, so you couldn’t say they were friends. Acquaintances. They checked each other out when the other one wasn’t looking but it wasn’t more than that.

Things change one night over sushi.

It starts like this: Sansa wanders into this bougey sushi place she had read reviews about on the foodie blogger scene. The place happened to be near her workplace so she made plans with herself to check it out one day after work. Robb was allergic to seafood so he couldn’t come with her. Margaery, her usual foodie pal, was out of town visiting her grandmother. Arya didn’t like eating anything that wasn’t cooked, so that left her without a companion (She wanted to keep her food blog away from her coworkers’ judgemental eyes for a little longer).

She walks into the restaurant and lets herself be guided to the bar. There are only four more people sitting there and she gets the biggest surprise when she notices the man a couple seats away from her is no other than Theon Greyjoy.

“Theon?” She asks in a small voice. She knows what it feels like when you run into someone when you’re eating alone. What she wouldn’t give to normalize eating by oneself!

“Fancy seeing you here Sansa Stark.” He says her name with the usual mirth in his voice as she walks to sit next to him.

He signals someone to bring her some sake as she gets herself comfortable. “Is this your first time in this place? I haven’t seen it before on your blog.” She stares at him as he pours her the drink. He stares back when he notices she hasn’t said anything.

“Wait, you know about my blog?”

He laughs. “Well yes, Robb basically has the site bookmarked on his laptop” He looks at her now. “Not gonna lie, I’ve taken some of your recommendations. You have better taste in food than your brother.”

“That’s not such a hard feat” She lifts up her sake cup. He takes her cue and does the same as he looks at her and they down their drinks at the same time

 

 

Turns out Theon Greyjoy is a great foodie pal to bring along to explore new places. (Even better than Margaery, but don’t tell her that) He’s not a picky eater, he doesn’t protest when she brings him to odd places AND he doesn’t mind taking pictures of her with her food until she’s happy with the result.

It’s not just the food. They have the same type of weird humor and they send each other surreal memes and he’s always the first one to like her pictures on instagram now, which is funny because they weren’t even instagram mutuals a couple of weeks ago. Facebook friends, yes, but who even uses facebook now?

 

 

Their little dynamic is met with issues around two months later.

They’re having dinner at some Italian restaurant Margaery asked her to test drive to see if she could go there with Robb. Their food gets there and Theon is in the middle of taking her usual pictures with her food when a middle aged woman walks up to their table.

“Never thought I’d see Sansa Stark with her boyfriend in public!” She sounds delighted and Sansa looks like her soul just left her body.

“Liz, hi.” Her voice immediately goes on _I’m-speaking-with-a-coworker_ mode.

“Theon, this is Elizabeth, my boss.” Theon stands up and shakes the woman’s hand with the smoothest smile on his face. “Theon Greyjoy, lovely meeting you.” She gives him a pointed look and it seems the woman is immune to his charms.

“You know a lot of people at the office thought it was odd, that a pretty girl like you didn’t have something going on. You’re gonna break a lot of potential suitors’ hearts after this. _Good_. None of them are good enough.” She laughs to herself. Sansa looks like she’s about to sprint out of the restaurant. “I’ll see you both at the Christmas party then. Bye!”

Sansa drinks up what was left on her glass of wine. Theon refills her glass.

“What did just happen?” And now she’s laughing.

“Looks like we’re fake dating now.” Theon says and he’s laughing too, because the situation is ridiculous but they’re the ones that should find it funny and they do, so there’s nothing to worry about. “I thought this only happened in fiction” Sansa gives a pretty loud cackle and the people around them give them pointed looks.

“Sorry, my boyfriend is just too funny” Theon shrugs and she’s still laughing. “You’re lucky. The agency’s Christmas parties are the fucking bomb”.

“Cheers to that!”

Theon is surprised to find he doesn’t mind this arrangement at all.

 

 

“Are you and Sansa fucking?” Theon almost chokes on his beer as he looks up to Arya.

“What?”

“You heard me. Are you and my sister fucking?” She says as if she’s talking about the weather.

They’re in the middle of a party Margaery organized to celebrate Robb passing the bar exam. He looks around to see if anyone heard her, but they’re alone in the kitchen and though he and Sansa have nothing to hide, he feels it’s best this conversation has no witnesses.

“Jesus Christ, no. Can’t a man and a woman ever be friends?”

“The only friend you’ve ever had is Robb. Your sister doesn’t count.” Damn. He knew Arya could be blunt but even this hurt him. “Can’t blame me for thinking this tho, your instagram only had pictures of nature and football games or the sea creatures you study and all of a sudden there are a dozen pics of her on your feed, you’re constantly touching each other, Sansa mops around all the time when you go on your field trips… Just saying, I’m not the only one that got to this conclusion.”

She grabs a beer from the refrigerator and other people start walking into the kitchen.

“Wouldn’t be opposed to it though” She smirks before she walks away and before he can ask her who else was thinking this.

 

 

He can’t stop thinking about what Arya said. It’s like the little top from Inception. It won’t stop spinning and everytime he sees Sansa he feels like the dream is collapsing but instead of waking up he’s in another dream until he sees her again.

He wakes up and thinks of Sansa. He’s at the lab thinking of Sansa (a much preferred alternative than focusing on his lab mates) While he’s on research trips he thinks of Sansa. He can’t even eat without thinking of her.

It’s his reality now.

 

 

Sansa’s fancy advertising agency’s Christmas party turns out to be exactly as advertised.

The party is held at some super modern hotel with a purple rug on the lobby and an indoor pool and a sick view of the city. Part of the Christmas bonus is one paid night at the hotel after the party, so since him and Sansa are dating in the eyes of her boss, they must share a room. Which is fine, they’ve shared rooms before, during sleepovers when they were kids and more recently they’ve crashed each other’s couches. But they’re sleeping on the same hugely comfortable bed and Sansa won’t let him not enjoy his stay _“as a repayment for helping me avoid the group of dudes betting on who can sleep with me first”_

It’s fine. He can do this. There’s nothing to see here.

He waits for her as she gets ready. She tells him to go and look around the hotel so he can tell her later what things to check out. He thinks he would’ve preferred to see her getting dolled up so the end result wouldn’t hit him like a truck but he must gather strength. He’s gotten caught in boats during storms and he supposes that giant squids aren’t the prettiest creatures to study. He can handle this.

 

 

He comes back to the room. Takes one look.

_He’s fucked._ But she’s smiling at him and twirling around so he wolf whistles and pretends like he doesn’t feel like he just walked into lava.

 

 

Theon is great at parties. This, Sansa knew. They could always count on him to liven up any celebration, but even she wasn’t expecting he’d win over her boss.

They’re matching. _Sansa’s idea_. She’s in a cute red getup with tousled waves and smokey eyes and she looks like Old Hollywood royalty and his suit has embroidered red flowers that compliment her dress. Liz is delighted.

“It’s not fair, she only warmed up to me after months.” She’s sulking a little. He gets her some mini quiches.

“Sansa I gotta refill my socialization energy bar before I spend three days at sea with just Ernie and Benedict.”

She pouts. This time because the weather has been nasty and she knows she’s gonna spend next week worried about him falling off a boat and being dragged into the deep ocean by a giant kraken.

_“Those are prehistoric creatures” “Well you never know”_

She tries to clear her head. They’re here right now and they’re having fun and she’s glad she brought a date that likes dancing like she does. _A date._

She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it.

Margaery had been the first one to ask. Then came the Liz incident. Then Jon started giving them looks. Then she couldn’t switch off the little light constantly shining a spotlight on the issue.

Girl has a crush on her older brother’s best friend. What a cliche!

But as the night goes on she’s drawn like a magnet to Theon’s touch. His hand on her waist, his fleeting kisses on her cheek, the warmth of his body. She can’t possibly be blamed for her actions when she finds a storm developing on his sea like eyes that matches the earthquake making her heart tremble.

So she closes the distance between them.

It’s not much space. They’re sitting inside a photobooth and they know there are people waiting for them to get out but they’re breathing each other in and if any of them let go she’s sure she’ll melt away. They break the kiss to catch their breaths. He touches her lips, and if she were capable to make any jokes now she’d say to him he’ll rub her lipstick off. There’s a cough outside and they finally come back to reality.

They step out. As she turns around to pick up the strip of pictures, Theon walks away. Her heart drops to her stomach but immediately goes back to its place as Theon comes back to her with her bag in one hand and takes her hand in his other hand and drags both of them outside the room.

Whoever thought of giving them a room for the night deserves a raise.

 

 

It’s not hard to figure out what’s about to happen. They’re kissing like their lives depend on it as they close their door. She feels like she’ll die if she stops kissing Theon, so why would she stop? His lips make their way from her lips to her jaw and her neck, and her hands find his hair and she keeps bringing him closer to her and bringing his lips back to hers. He knows exactly where to touch her and his grunts in return tell her she knows where to touch him too.

It’s almost illogical they haven’t done this before.

He unwraps her like a Christmas present. There’s a giant bow just above her ass he gives her a light spank as he finishes unzipping her dress. Her eyes widen and she gives him a small slap as she grabs him by his tie and brings his lips to her neck. He’s struggling to take off his pants and the situation would be comical if he wasn’t so damned turned on.

Now that she’s undressed he finally takes a good look at her. Her skin is like silk and he’s addicted. Her hands find his hair and his neck and his chest and she’s brandished him for life. He won’t ever be able to forget her caresses.

He wants his lips to touch every surface of her body and she seems to want the same, and who is he to deny Sansa Stark what she wants?

He keeps kissing. He wants to make her feel good and he _knows_ he can make her feel good.

He kisses her breasts and her stomach and keeps going down until he finds her folds and her clit and the way she whines and wraps her legs around him make him keep going until she’s thrashing around on the bed and he’s supporting her through her aftershocks.

She opens her eyes and takes one look at him between her legs. It’s the most erotic thing she’s ever seen.

He looks slightly deranged and she knows she must look the same.

She brings him closer to her and palms him through his boxers. He’s already hard. She comes closer and gives him a peck on the lips. Her hand goes inside his underwear as she bites his lower lip and give him a couple tugs. He groans into the kiss and he’s trying to reach for his discarded pants without breaking contact. He must detach himself and reach for the pants that have fallen to the floor. He finds his wallet and takes out a condom.

“Brilliant lad, past Theon, isn’t he?” He looks like he’s just won the lottery and she giggles as he breaks the package and unrolls the condom around his shaft.

This is happening. He looks at Sansa one more time to see if there’s any regret or doubt, but she smiles at him as he thrusts into her. She wraps her long legs around him and she calls out his name, and it’s so easy to get lost into her and mix up his cries of pleasure between hers.

 

 

She awakens first the next morning.

Her head is on top of Theon’s chest and her leg thrown over the bottom part of his body and she feels content and wishes she could spend more time like this without a care, but Theon is on top of her arm, and now that she’s awake she’s painfully aware of the numbness. She just needs Theon to move a little so she can retrieve her arm and they can keep cuddling.

But she’s now also painfully aware Theon might not want to continue what they started last night.

What did this mean for them?

She liked Theon. A lot, she had realized. She’d been in denial for the past couple of months but last night everything had flooded through her and she couldn’t stop herself. Had she screwed everything up?

 

 

She’d kissed him first.

He kept replaying everything that happened last night and he kept coming back to that little detail. _She’d kissed him first._

He feels her stirring and he’s determined to not make this awkward. He moves a little and he feels her moving her arm from underneath him.

He looks down at her and grins. “Morning”

“Good morning.” She gives him a small smile and blushes a little.

Theon hopes she can’t feel his heart beating wildly.

“Wanna have breakfast in bed or do you want to go to the roof terrace?” He hoped he sounded as nonchalant as he tried.

“I’m too comfortable to move right now.”

Theon did a cheer in his head after she said this. He’ll relish this as much as he can.

 

 

Turns out it was incredibly easy to fall back into their routine.

Hanging out, finding new places to eat at, partying with their friends… it was also too easy to add sex into the mix.

Now that they knew how their bodies reacted to one another, it was impossible to deny themselves this. What started as their usual innocent touches, now ended with with them wrapped around each other, mouths and hands exploring the other.

They still hadn’t talked about what this meant in the long run.

 

 

Yara was the first to find out about their new arrangement.

They didn’t even notice when she walked in and Sansa was dry humping Theon on the couch. She was still dressed up but he tried to cover her up as much as he could. He regrets not asking his sister for the spare set of keys after she moved out of their apartment.

“Well, I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Though I didn’t need to actually see you lot in action. Hey! Sansa, don’t need to hide. This is hardly the least compromising situation I’ve found Theon in”

Yara keeps walking into the kitchen as if nothing happened, grabs a beer.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just here to look for some papers I left here.” She gives them a thumbs up and laughs as she walks down the hallway. The mood is ruined and he’s not gonna have sex while his sister is there.

He gets up, goes to the kitchen.

“Want a beer?” He asks Sansa, who just nods as she turns on the TV.

It’s just easy to fall back into their routine.

 

 

Sansa knows she’s in deep shit. It’s just so nice to pretend she and Theon are actually a couple and she’s not the most stereotypical person on the planet, falling for her now friend with benefits. Every day she tries to gather up the courage to ask Theon if he’ll ever want more, but she’s too scared to find out if his answer is different than hers.

She could get over Theon of course. She’s had her fair share of beyond shitty exes and if she could get over those awful toxic relationships she could also get over an unrequited crush.

But she didn’t want to risk losing a friend.

So each day Sansa gave herself one more opportunity to clear the air between them.

But it was easier to turn around and kiss Theon silly.

 

 

“Are you like in love with Theon?” Sansa starts coughing after choking on the tea she was sipping.

“You heard me. Actually, let me rephrase that. Are you aware you and Theon are like in love with each other?” Arya starts digging through their cabinets and grabs a box of cereal, starts eating directly from it. Not paying attention to Sansa’s small crisis.

“I just don’t get it. After you guys started fucking I thought you got your heads out of your asses but it turns out you’re only in deeper.”

“Wait you know about that?”

“Sansa we live together. No judging. You’ve given me and Gendry a lot of space over the last year.”

Sansa’s looking for the best way to say what she wants to say, but she knows she can’t bullshit Arya around. She tells her the truth.

“I’m scared.” And it’s the first time she says this outloud.

Arya reaches out and squeezes her hand. Sansa looks up and squeezes back.

Her sister gives her a reassuring smile. “You shouldn’t be.”

 

 

Theon almost drowns. It’s a particularly stormy day and he knows they shouldn’t have been at sea but he was impatient. He didn’t want to delay the trip one more day and miss Sansa’s birthday, but like a stupid asshole he went and got himself exactly in the situation she was scared he’d be in one day. So he fell. He doesn’t know exactly how he got back into the boat but he’s now feverish on a hospital bed on a dull fishing town north of London, dreaming of Sansa.

He can’t even have a near death experience without thinking of her.

He wakes up the next day in a pile of sweat with a dry mouth and he must still have a fever because he sees Sansa curled up uncomfortably on a chair next to his bed.

“Sansa?” He says with a raspy voice.

She opens her eyes. Moves around her neck a little before she fully awakens and looks at him with bloodshot eyes.

“You ruined my birthday.” She stands up and pours him a glass of water. He drinks it all in one go.

She walks over to the door.

He panics a little. “Where are you going?”

“Calm down I’m just letting Yara know you’re up.” Her tone is still tense but she gives him a small smile.

She comes back with coffee and his sister.

“You ass. Thank the drowned God he didn’t claim you this time.” She hugs him and Sansa is back to her chair, sipping her coffee. She looks distracted and he notices she’s in one of her work outfits. Had she come straight from work for this? She’s texting and still not making eye contact with him.

He didn’t mean to almost die, of course, he’d rather die than making Sansa suffer.

A nurse walks in, gives him a small check up and says he’s free to leave. Yara walks after her to check him out.

“I can’t believe you almost died on my birthday.” She looks like she’s about to cry. He feels bad, even if he obviously didn’t do it on purpose.

He tells her that.

“Please don’t talk I’m upset with you.” She gets up and starts pacing the room. “Do you know how how annoying it would’ve been if you had died and I never got to tell you I’m in love with you? So not only did you ruin my birthday but you also ruined my grand opportunity to confess in a normal way and instead I’m a walking cliche again for telling you this because you almost died. You’ve made me a cliche, Theon!”

She’s still pacing around the room but he thinks he’s still feverish and he’s hearing things.

“I’m sorry, what?” He doesn’t mean to but he starts laughing.

“Is this a joke to you?”

Theon stands up and really looks at her. She looks tired and vulnerable and he can’t see her like this for another second.

“I’ve either completely drowned or I’m in the middle of a fever induced hallucination, but I think I heard the woman I’m completely crazy about tell me she’s in love with me.”

She gives a little nod and he laughs like a maniac. He kisses her.

“Sansa I would’ve fought a kraken and swam an entire ocean to tell you you’ve made me a bigger fool. A fool in love.”

 

 

She laughs and starts crying and hides her face in the crook of his neck.

“Oh Theon.”

She looks at him and realizes she’s been a fool too.

**Author's Note:**

> @pinkmanesque on twitter


End file.
